


Situational Awareness

by BerryBagel



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Banter, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, High School, Humor, Identity Reveal, Lack of Communication, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Secret Identity, this takes place in the best possible timeline where everything in infinity war gets undone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 10:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16303643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryBagel/pseuds/BerryBagel
Summary: Peter feels like MJ has been acting distant...weird...he couldn't possibly have anything to do with that, could he?(He could)





	Situational Awareness

Michelle...uh,  _ MJ, because Peter counts as a friend...right?... _ has always been observant.  Not much gets by her. It’s a good trait to have, Peter thinks.  In fact, at times like this, he wishes he, personally, were a bit more observant.

 

The whole debate team is piled into one of the school’s storage rooms, digging through old boxes.  Someone’s playing music on their phone. It’s Friday afternoon. Life is good. But MJ seems out of sorts.  Not in a bad mood necessarily, since Peter can’t confidently say he has any idea how to read her emotions, but a little off.  Distant. He had made eye contact with her during Spanish twice today, and she hadn’t done anything either time. No little drawings passed to him under the desk.  No funny eyebrow quirk. He wonders if maybe he forgot her birthday, or something.

 

“Remind me again what this folder looks like?” Ned asks, rifling through a cardboard box.

 

“Liz didn’t really say.  But it has her name on it.” Peter says.  Liz had texted him this morning. Her college debate team thought her old notes folder might be helpful, but as far as she could remember it was still somewhere in the storage room, could Peter take a look and mail it to her?   Sure, he’d like to regain some basic credibility in her eyes. He had texted the rest of the team, and they were all happy to help search for it.

 

“I think it’s really cute that you and Liz still text each other.” one of the freshmen says.

 

“They definitely don’t.” Flash says.

 

“Uh, we definitely do.” Peter rebukes.  Not a lie. Technically. He’s gotten two texts from Liz since she moved away last year, and only one of them was sent to his number by accident.  The other was sort of a rambly message about missing New York, and Peter thinks she was maybe drunk at a college party when she sent it. Actually, that one might have been a wrong number, also.  But Flash doesn’t need to know that.

 

“Yeah, and I’m definitely texting Scarlet Witch.” Flash scoffs.

 

Peter instinctively looks over at MJ, because she always makes the best facial expressions after Flash says something annoying.  But she’s going through a filing cabinet and doesn’t even look up. See,  _ weird _ !

 

He wads up a piece of paper and throws it at Flash, all by himself.  It doesn’t have the same appeal, somehow.

 

* * *

Things seem mostly back to normal by the next monday.  Which is good, because Peter has  _ news _ , and it wouldn’t be as exciting if he couldn’t tell MJ about it.  She and Ned have the best dynamic about exciting stories. Ned gets all hyped up with him, and MJ always hits back with something hilariously deadpan.

 

He’d love to tell her about the whole Spiderman thing, but he can’t, on premise.  It’d be too dangerous. But he still imagines what her face would look like if he  _ could _ tell her.  She’s hard to impress, but he thinks saving the city a few times might be at least a little awe-inspiring.  He might get an appreciative nod before the unavoidable snarky joke about his costume.

 

“ _ Guess  _ who I just heard from yesterday.” He starts, sliding in across from Ned and MJ at the lunch table.  This is perhaps not something he’s necessarily cleared to tell MJ about, but he kinda feels like he can finagle this into making sense in a ‘Stark-Internship’ way.

 

“Was it Tony Stark?” Ned asks, immediately onboard.  “Wait, no, was it...uh...was it-”

 

“-It was Shuri!” Peter says, too excited to let him guess.

 

“Oh, man, she’s the coolest!  What’d she want?” Ned says.

 

Peter grins. “Get this, she invited me to come visit her in Wakanda.”

 

“What!” Ned says, leaning almost all the way over the table.

 

“Yeah!  I think the Avengers still feel guilty about the whole thing last summer, so they keep letting me tag along to stuff.”

 

As far as Peter understands, he died last summer.  A lot of people did. An alien attack, type thing. Then the Avengers did some crazy time travel stuff, and prevented all the death.  He doesn’t have any memory of it, because, y’know, time travel stuff. But Mr.Stark keeps showing up at his apartment and crying.

 

Mr.Stark introduced him to Shuri at a global tech conference a few months ago that, frankly, Peter had no business being at.  He’s been texting Shuri since then. She thinks she could make his web shooter run a lot more efficiently. They’ve been exchanging schematics and vine compilations.  The basis for a solid friendship.

 

“That’s so cool.” Ned reiterates. “You basically get to go on a date with a princess.”

 

“I don’t think, uh, it’s not a date, she didn’t say that.” Peter says.

 

“Look at you, stealing my celebrity crush.” MJ says.

 

“I’m not- it’s really not a date- I-” Peter starts again.  No, it’s really just to work on the web shooter. It’s very important to him, he’s not sure why particularly, that MJ understands it  _ isn’t _ a date.

 

MJ laughs once. “I’m kidding.  But stay away from Spiderman, he’s mine.” she says, with such a flat affect Peter can’t tell if she’s kidding or not.  All witty comebacks are immediately wiped from his mind.

 

“I...uh...I will…” Peter eventually settles on.

 

“It’s all good, his celebrity crush is Thor.  No competition there.” Ned offers.

 

“Right.” MJ gives Peter a look he can’t even imagine trying to interpret.  She reopens her book. “So when you meet the Dora Milaje, can you ask them some questions for me?”

 

* * *

Peter, Ned, and MJ are all draped across the couch in Peter’s apartment.  They’re rewatching  _ The Phantom Menace _ , because Ned swears that Nick Fury has a cameo appearance in it.   _ Obviously _ not true, there’s no way Peter would have missed something like that.

 

“Was that him?” MJ asks, only half paying attention to the onscreen action.  She brought her sketchbook with her, and is absently filling in a page with little spirals.

 

“I don’t think so.” Ned says.  “What about- no, that wasn’t him, either.”

 

Peter tells them he’s going to go get more popcorn, and is happy enough when MJ jumps up to come with him.  She’s been seeming a little distant again. Even agreeing to movie night was a good sign.

 

MJ corners him in the kitchen.  “Alright, can we talk about last Thursday for a minute?” she asks.

 

“Sure.” Peter says, racking his brain for anything noteworthy about last Thursday.  He and MJ had gone to the library after school to work on a project for English Literature.  MJ clearly knew a lot more about the assigned material than he did. He didn’t think she was mad about that, though.  She had seemed to really enjoy explaining the nuances of the symbolism in  _ 1984 _ .  Her whole face really lit up, and her enthusiasm was contagious.  It had felt, almost, more like a date than a homework meeting.

 

Oh- actually, there was the convenience store robbery on Thursday.  Ned had seen something about a holdup on the news and texted Peter at the library.  Peter had to make an excuse to leave and rush four blocks over. No one was hurt, and the robbers were easy enough to track down and web up.  Maybe MJ is upset he had to leave on such short notice?

 

“So, Peter, we were working on our project, and then you left the library at 5:15.” MJ says.

 

“Right, and I am  _ really _ sorry about having to leave early.  I had to, uh…” He tries to remember was excuse he gave.  Stark internship? Meet Aunt May for dinner? It’s important he gets this right, because he’s sure MJ remembers whatever it was he said.

 

“You forgot you had a dentist’s appointment.” MJ supplies.

 

“Yes.  Exactly.” He says, convincingly, he hopes.

 

“So you left the library, but instead of catching a bus or something, you immediately ran into an alleyway across the street.” She says.  Right, you absolutely could see across the street from inside the library. Because there were those big windows on the front of the building.  Should’ve remembered that on Thursday.

 

“...It was a shortcut.” Peter says.

 

“It was a dead end.” MJ corrects him.  “And then a few minutes later, look who came swinging out of that same alleyway.”  She pulls up a picture on her phone and shows him. Sure enough, there he is, in full suit.  Spiderman.

 

“That’s a crazy coincidence.” Peter says.  She gives him an even look. This is it, he thinks.  She’s figured it out. The thought is relieving, he realizes.  He doesn’t have to keep it a secret from her anymore. And she’s obviously handling the information pretty well.

 

“Look, I won’t tell Ned...are you hooking up with Spiderman?” She asks.

 

“Yes, I am Spiderman…’s hookup buddy…” He says, then amends, wondering if at this point it wouldn’t be better to just fess up.

 

MJ claps him on the shoulder.  “Your love life is your own business, but I’ve gotta say, in  _ an alleyway _ ?  That’s a little gross, bud.”

 

* * *

“You should ask her to prom.” Ned says, incredibly close to Peter’s ear.  Peter swats Ned on instinct, then realizes he doesn’t have any idea who Ned is talking about.

 

“Who?” Peter asks.

 

“MJ.  You’re staring at her.”  Ned whispers, which is not entirely true.  Sure, Peter was looking at her, but they’re at debate team practice.  MJ is the debate team captain. She’s running the practice. It’d be rude  _ not _ to be looking at her.

 

And if Peter is looking with a little more personal interest than professional courtesy, well, there’s still no need to characterize that as  _ staring _ .

 

“I don’t know, does MJ even want to go to prom?” Peter whispers back.  MJ might be going to a protest, or finishing her art portfolio, or any number of things more relevant than prom.

 

“Of course she wants to go to prom.  Especially if she’s going with you.” Ned says.

 

“Does she even like me?” Peter asks.

 

“Clearly.  She’s always looking at you with that stupid grin.  Not sure how you’ve missed it, since you’re also always staring at her.” Ned says.

 

Peter reflects on this conversation the next day, when he  _ does _ ask MJ to prom, and she gives him a look that could curdle milk.

 

“I might be busy that day.” She says, and isn’t that  _ exactly  _ what Peter had told Ned?  God, now things were gonna be so weird with MJ and what if she stopped sitting with them at lunch and watching movies with them and hanging out with them at debate meets and- “Why don’t you see if Liz can go with you?” she adds dryly.

 

“Liz?  I haven’t talked to Liz in months.” Peter pauses for a second. “Don’t tell Flash.”

 

“Sure.  Why don’t you see if Shuri wants to fly in?” MJ asks.

 

It suddenly occurs to Peter that he might have given MJ the wrong idea about his relationship status...on multiple occasions.

 

“I wasn’t- Shuri and I aren’t- we weren’t actually ever dating.” Peter says.  He takes a deep breath, and then, because he feels like he maybe owes it to MJ at this point, says “I like you, a lot.  I have for a while, but I don’t think I realized it until...recently. I really like hanging out with you.”

 

MJ leans back against the chain-link fence outside the school, hugging her book against her chest.  She finally smiles at him, but it’s short-lived. “I like you too. That’s why I keep distancing myself.  It seems like you like me, then you go and talk about how you’re still texting Liz, or jet-setting off with Shuri.  There’s always someone else.” MJ thinks for a second. “I don’t mean that in a slut-shaming way. I’m just not convinced you care more about me than the people you’re hooking up with.”

 

Peter looks at his feet guiltily.  “I never- There was never anyone else.  I should have made that clear. I’m sorry.”

 

“I’d really like to believe that, but last week you told me you were hooking up with Spiderman.   _Last week_.” She repeats.

 

“I can explain that.” Peter offers.

 

Ned and Aunt May had both discovered Peter was Spiderman with blank-faced shock.  Mr.Stark and Dr.Strange had both learned his identity with almost cavalier indifference.  MJ is the first person he’s actually ever directly  _ told _ , and she breaks down laughing.

 

“That’s incredible.  I thought you were a drug dealer, but yeah, this somehow makes so much more sense.” She finally says, grinning ear-to-ear.

 

“So...is that still a  _ no _ on prom, though…?” Peter asks.

 

“Woah, woah, I never said that.” She says.  “Now that I know you’re not stealing Spiderman away from me…”

 

“You’re not busy?” he asks.  MJ grins and shakes her head.

 

“I’m very busy, but I’ll make time.”


End file.
